The Fetid Fountain

Areyal enters the East Wing.

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You step into a grey-bricked room, considerably smaller than the foyer. It carries on the style of mismatched, broken tiles, and standing in the corners of the room are four mandatory pillars, etched with lines, clothed with black foliage.

Three green, gooey creatures are skulking immediately ahead, on the eastern side of the room - ChuChus. They have scattered themselves around another open door, and at the bottom of an ascending stairwell. They hop carelessly from side-to-side, orbs half-sunk into their gelatinous forms. Two of them start heading towards the Zora intruder at a slow pace, inching along with every jump.

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Other than the three green Chuchus, you sense no other life forms in this room.

Tessa followed after Faust without much question; it mattered little which direction she went in. The hostile presence in the next room hit her immediately, her ability to Sense familiar enough to her that she recognized it immediately. It didn't seem to be moving, though. Waiting for them to round the corner? Or trigger something else in the room, like the crystal?

She followed Nicholas to the edge of the platform and peered down, eyeing the inky blackness awaiting them. His suggestion would hold merit if they could see the ground below, but that was pure black down there. Either it was a magic pit with no bottom, or the ground below was so far away that light failed to reach it.

"Yeeeeeeah, let's not try that one. I mean I'm as up for crazy as the next girl but even if it has a bottom we sure aren't reaching it."

Her two-rupees contributed, Tessa took a moment to examine the platform they were on for anything hiding. False walls, pressure plates, the like. She didn't expect to find anything, but the others didn't seem all that keen on trying the crystal yet, so she figured she'd give them time to work to the idea themselves. It was really the only option right now.

Other than the shifting of certain loose tiles, the walls and floors on the platform gave Tessa no reaction.

Regardless of the groups actions, luminescence wavered along the walls, moving shadows travelled along the ground, tossed around by the platforms spinning with the distant darkness crossing around the bend.

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...And the malefic presence ahead of them twitched awkwardly, but came no closer.

Upon entering with the other two, Ni'Ran realised that light would be a precious commodity in here. "Areyal," he said, "Do you have any means of lighting our way? We may need it, especially if we are to-" explore deeper, he had wanted to say, but he was interrupted by a gelatinous green blob jumping at him. Scoffing at the anticlimactic nature of the being, he lashed out once, the sharp edge of his blade connecting to the ChuChu and severing its head from its stalk-like foot. With a second blow, he scattered the jelly that made up the creature. "Well," he said, looking at its remains, "That was disappointing. I had at least expected Wallmasters or Darknuts in here."

He turned to Lamont. "Er, there aren't Wallmasters or Darknuts in here, right? Just making sure." It would hardly be the first time he said something like that, only to jinx his travelling party. It had made for quite the run-in with that flock of Furnixes the other mission... maybe he'd tell that story one day. He supposed it would be funny to those who hadn't been part of the debacle. He stepped closer to the Hylian, joining him near the steps. "Huh. Well, if we're to be going down, we'll definitely need a source of light." He frowned. He was not willing to assume there would be torches down there, just like that. But before that...

He removed one of his throwing knives from his thigh, throwing it down at a general angle he thought matched that of the stairwell. He knew better than to just run down and not expect trouble.

Splattered ChuChu goo clings to the floor, adding more residual filth to the room, hinting towards two former residents of the area. One of the monsters still remains; hopping languidly and without a mind.

Ni'Ran's throwing knife vanishes into the all-engulfing shade which covers the stairwell's descending spiral. At a rhythm between steps, the resounding metal can be heard clattering against stone, quickly following the knife, becoming quieter as it bounces away. Then, silence.

Faust tried – hard – not to take notice of the kid’s infatuation with Tessa: the brat was practically almost dribbling. He had that doe-eyed, awkwardly teenage expression whenever his attention strayed towards her – which happened far too often – and the doctor felt his gut sicken with discomfort every time.

Would he have to put up with this for the whole journey? It didn’t help that Faust felt almost as graceless as Nicholas evidently did about their female company. It may have been amusing once, if not almost strangely cute, to find himself mirrored in the red-head boy but after being trapped in an ominous, dark room together things had…changed a little.

Shit this is awkward. To make matters worse they most certainly weren’t alone here.

Faust’s sharp, scrutinising eyes glanced up at the darkness above in an answer to his alerted instincts. But try as he might, wait as he did, he couldn’t make out anything suspicious. But it was there. Something was definitely there. Around the corner perhaps? However in Din’s fire we get that far.

“Tessa’s right,” The doctor agreed. “It would be too much of a risk to blindly jump or climb down into the unknown. It wouldn’t even be worth labelling as ‘hero business’.”

That left the crystal placed very purposefully next to them. And between the magical light which it radiated and the spinning platforms waiting before them, Faust had suspicions that the two must evidently be linked. So without any further thought his fingers slipped into a knuckle duster and he struck out at the giant rock, in one strong, yet languidly swift punch to the side that hopefully wouldn’t break it if it was as sturdy as it looked. That’s how things worked right? There didn’t seem to be anything else to possibly activate the crystal with so hopefully a good smack would sort things out.

And if all else failed and there was no reaction? Down into the abyss we shall go. Though it’d probably be wise to throw something down there first and test the depth out at least, as I don’t quite think my rope is long enough.

Ping...

The crystal responds to the connection with an optimistic ring, and the grey strands within the glass flicker into a marble stream of yellows and golds. For a few seconds, nothing else seems to react to the crystal - but sure enough the spinning platforms start to wind down, eventually coming to a still, silent stop. They hang in the air motionless, and the lack of movement leaves an eerie quiet wafting in the room.

The silence is quickly broken, however, by the jagged rhythm of a slow, patient tick. tick. tick. The ticking sound echoes across the walls, and shudders with every strike.

A sudden, preternatural darkness encroaches inside the West Wing, where Faust, Nicholas and Tessa are subject to the curious ticking noise. It manifests in the atmosphere like a quick storm, suddenly everything feels heavy.

Those present in the West Wing hear slowly approaching, slowly descending, the dreadful swoosh of something falling out from thousands of feet above as if the ceiling had suddenly grown into a sky. Before long, it appears in the inexplicable black fog.

The sickly, mangled fingers of a giant hand swoops out of the air, snatching up the Hylian, Nicholas, and crawls with him between two of it's vile fingers towards a certain spot on the floor. Before he could scream, or even realise the present danger, Nicholas is dragged away by the hand, slowly engulfed in an unseen portal in the floor, as if the tiles were made of sinking sand.

And as suddenly as it had appeared, the five-digit monster vanished, along with the heavy, evil atmosphere. Everything remains as it were before the creature appeared, the platforms remain still, and the ticking goes ever on as if the party members had witnessed a pocket of time which had neither come nor gone.

Aww, the little green Chuchu's seemed rather adorable. Bouncing around all silly like that. Of course, she knew full well it would try and kill her and her teammates giving the chance, but she couldn't help but feel bad as first two slimes were vanquished so easy, and then left the first one completely forgotten. It's friends were gone... Or parents. Did Chuchus have parents? How did they have kids anyways? These kind of questions nagged at her as she walked towards the last Chuchu.

Figuring it would be a mercy at this point to put the poor thing out of it's misery, she was quick to imbue her staff with the power of ice. Smacking the side of her staff against the gooey body of the monster, a burst of freezing cold air exploding out from the staff, freezing it practically completely solid. She didn't hit it too hard, but just hard enough to freeze it. Hopefully that didn't hurt too bad. Poor guy. They didn't even look intelligent enough to be evil.

Quickly smacking it again, the ice cracked and finally shattered into dozens of pieces. If that was the worst monster they ran into, that would be fine by her. Only now did she realize the rest of her group were gathering over by the stairs. Oops! She even had more eyes than the rest of everyone, and she didn't really see them over there.

Only hearing the very end of the conversation, something about needed light, she quickly scampered over to their side. Without a word, she stopped right next to them to make some light. Looking down into her bag, she pulled out a small bottle of Blue Fire, a recent addition to her small collection of magical objects. Opening the bottle, the fire seemed to spill up into the air and form painlessly in her other hand. Lifting her hand up, she seemed to place the self-sustaining cold fire ball in the air right above her head. It was clear she had just used the Will-o-Wisp spell, as the little cold flame bounced around when she did.

"Is that good?" She tilted her head at the Hylian and the Rito as she asked her question. Of course, she was the only one able to make light. Surprising to her, actually. Most Hylians she had met knew a lot of basic spells. But then again, she almost always purposefully met with magical people. Ritos... Well she honestly didn't know too much.

Shrugging her shoulders, and steeling herself in case something rather frightening was at the bottom, she just started walking down the stairs. Sure, Ni'Ran might be the leader of the expedition, but he sure wasn't leading the group down. Should she comment on that? Nah. She just softly giggled to herself, a soft smile on her face as she descended.

Of course, the rest must think she's mad, giggling in a place like this.

The sharp, white glow of the wisp provides an circle of light for the party. More of the features on the stairs are visible, the immediate area surrounding Areyal is brightly lit and the first ten steps down are quite plain in sight, but somehow a dim bleakness still hovers in the air, it is more a horrid aura than a physical shadow.

Areyal descends into the Lower Lobby.

Map Floor 2 (open) Map Floor 2 (close)

Trickling down from the rot-twisted ceiling along the southernmost wall, there appears to be a sort of black slime. It's dripping so slowly, it almost looks as if it is crawling down the wall. Scattered around the floor are tiny, glowing bodies. Their little lights glimmer like dying candles. Some of them still hover in the air, piloting without any variety in their patten, only straight paths through the air at snail speed. There is a single pillar right in the middle of the room, it is quite thin and you can easily see the other side by leaning slightly. Along the edges of the room are several terracotta pot shards, amongst which is the body of a red-haired woman.



An open archway folds into the east wall, fogged with mystery.

(I am so sorry, I only realized the other day my turn had come up already.)

"Oh, finally, someone tried the crystal! Tally ho!" Tessa practically skipped across the abyss, careful to maintain enough momentum so as not to end up hovering over the pit any time her boots stopped supporting her. With no monsters just ahead, all she had to do was focus on the platforms. Easy enough.

Even Tessa was sufficiently cautious to take care when turning the corner, but she didn't have much choice except forward. Either she fought whatever was over there, or the platforms started spinning again and launched her off. The only way out of this one was through. As she approached the corner she readied her sword and raised her shield, then made for the first bit of solid looking ground she could find, ready to deal with whatever threat laid ahead.

((That's alright, no worries ))

Tessa's footsteps echo along the stilled platforms, reverberating across iridescent walls. Sharpened and twitching, black shapes twist in the air, huddled in the dark. That hostile feeling some of the members might have felt when they entered the room was swiftly awakening, crouching into form. Little leather wings started to hammer, and out of the shaded ceiling came an erratic, squeaking swarm of Keese. Between fifteen and twenty of them come down like a cloud of plague, and head towards Tessa.

Despite the oncoming enemy, Tessa can now see the other side of the room. Yet more platforms hang magically across the abyss, five of them, stopped dead like the ones before. At the end of the precarious path was a solid, grounded piece of stone attached to the wall, big enough for the party to stand on. There seems to be a door over there, it looks shut. There is also something sticking out of the floor near the door but from this distance it is difficult to tell what it is.

The ticking noise begins to pace faster, increasing like a tensing heart beat.

Remei could sort of hear what was happening. She supposed. She wasn't altogether sure if she was actually hearing it or if that was just white noise rattling around in her head. It sounded a little bit like voices, and she rather hoped it was. Everything had been a thick, impenetrable darkness for a very long time now, and had she been capable of thinking properly she would have been excited. Finally, for the first time since she'd stupidly- stupidly!- entered this hellish fountain, there was a glimmer of hope. She hadn't come prepared, and she was paying dearly. This wasn't the raids on the ocean. She hadn't thought of the obvious that any seasoned adventurer should have thought of. A light source. More than one potion. Usually, people she had raided had been too busy either shrieking or being assaulted by her fellow pirates to actually wound her.

Touching the fairy had been her stupidest idea yet. A plain indicator that maybe Remei wasn't ready for solo adventuring. Should have stayed with mommy, you stupid bitch. The venomous comment from all those years ago fitted the situation perfectly, even though there was absolutely no way Dahlia could ever have foreseen Remei sprawled, covered in her own blood, across the floor of this mangy fountain. The giant hand had dropped from absolutely nowhere, its insanely tight grip breaking her upper arm completely. Even in her numb, limp state she could feel the hot pain twisting around her shoulder and making her need terribly to throw up with how it twisted around in her throat and her head and her arm that was covered in blood.

Had she been conscious enough to register them, she would have noticed the trio of adventurers- one Zora, one Hylian and one Rito- enter the room.

"Perfect," Ni'Ran said, looking at the little ball of blue fire that illuminated their path down. He wasn't happy with leaving Areyal in front, but at the same time, he feared the light would be too faint for him to see much by if he stood in front of her. He was a large bird, his body would obscure much. As they stepped onto the floor at the end of the staircase, he gently nudged past her and looked around. The slime dripping from the ceiling was not a good sign. Surely the ceiling wasn't going to collapse on them, was it? He shook his head, allowing himself to be distracted by the fireflies. They were more soothing... wait. What was that they were concentrated around?

A woman's body lay among the shards of what must once have been pottery, a pool of blood beneath her. "Valoo's Mercy," he muttered. As he stepped closer, he realised the girl's chest was still heaving with breath, and he ran the rest of the distance towards her. From her clothing, the jewel that adorned her forehead, and the hair that he could faintly make out to be red in colour, he supposed she wasn't a Hylian- but this was not the time for racism. Her body was completely mangled, but still warm. "If she's lost this much blood and is still alive," he said, looking around nervously, "Then whatever did this to her must still be close by."

He turned to the others. "If either of you has any means of seeing to her wounds," he said, "It'd be best if you used them now. I'll see if I can find any clues as to where she came from." With that, he started rummaging around the terracotta shards. He had explored enough dungeons to know that pottery should never, never be left unattended.

The earthen pot shards are a rich terracotta, and a very high quality. They might have once been worth something, when they were whole. Among the bits of dusty rocks and blunted clay shards, Ni'ran uncovers something foreign. It gleams in the low lights, defiant against the drab, lifeless debris around it. It's a beautifully detailed boomerang, with swooping, white edges.

Areyal gasped at the sight. The pretty lights were enough to distract her before her eyes locked onto something across the room.

Oh this was not good. This was not good at all. There was a body over there! Frowning heavily to herself, her excited mood had immediately fell. Holding her purse close to her chest, she quickly made her way over towards the Hylian girl... no, Gerudo!

It didn't matter too much to her, all she cared about was someone was hurt and she could help! At least, a little bit. The Zora barely knew anything about first aid. That was for a doctor to help with, but healing magic? That she could get behind a little bit. In fact, she was pretty sure she still remembered a healing spell from her childhood. She definitely did remember learning to cast Rejuvenation when she was younger, but abandoned it when she realized she couldn't use it to heal herself.

However, now was the perfect time to cast it. Without any hesitation, she dropped her purse to the floor to retrieve her canteen. Popping the lid open, she stuck one of her fingers into the water. Focusing for a few seconds, she began to cast the spell. It was probably weaker than it should have been given all the years since she hadn't even attempted, but it was better than nothing.

Careful not to injure the girls obviously mangled arm even more, she carefully lifted up the girl's head. Areyal spoke with a soft tone as she began to pour the water past the Gerudo's lips. "Here you go... drink up."

In the West Wing, a familiar, fell atmosphere returns. Five wrinkled fingers curl downwards out of the ceiling above Faust. Before he can even acknowledge the dark presence, the monster descends upon him. Grasping tightly with some fingers, and scuttling away along the floor with others, the Wallmaster finds its black portal on a surface. The doctor locked in its fingers, the creature dives into the circular portal, leaving a trace of neither monster nor Faust behind.

In approximately the same second Tessa realized two things: there was a cloud of Keese approaching and she had no time to fight them. She sprinted towards the far platform across the intervening ones, swinging her sword wildly around her at any Keese that came close, pushing her Hover Boots to the limit as she ran across the air between platforms. When she hit solid ground she slid to a stop and twirled to face the bats, finishing off any that remained.

The Keese fall delicately into the pit like scraps of leather, and the rigid tick tick tick is anxiously quickening. A few moments after Tessa lands on the ledge where the door is, the ticking halts, and the platforms start moving once again.

Tessa can see a large depressible block on the floor, about as high as her calf bone, and of course there is a closed door.